Will F1's most volatile rivalry explode in 2018?

Recipe for Formula 1 inter-team trouble: pairing an established driver searching for his last chance at a big break with a hungry youngster burdened with the expectations of Formula 1's most successful team

Rivalries add a glorious edge of grit and fire to Formula 1, beyond the simple pleasure that comes from masters of their craft expressing their talents on track. How dull the first three seasons of Mercedes' F1 domination would have been had relations between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg not disintegrated so spectacularly amid all the collisions, suspicions and recriminations.

With that dynamic obliterated by Rosberg's retirement, harmony now reigns at Mercedes - so long as Valtteri Bottas remains such a sanguine team player and Mercedes does nothing to upset Hamilton's newfound equilibrium. But the whiff of interpersonal controversy still coats the Silver Arrows from afar, even though Rosberg is no longer on hand to help give it form within the works team.

The intra-team rivalry with most edge in F1 these days no longer plays out at the front of the grid, between a hauled up by his boot straps lad from Stevenage and the cosmopolitan son of a world champion born into motorsport's elite. But it still belongs to Mercedes - powered by its engines, with one of its own at the centre.

Ben Anderson is Autosport's Grand Prix Editor and one of our track testers. He holds an undergraduate degree in journalism studies from the University of Sheffield and joined the title in March of 2008, after eight months working in local newspaper journalism for award-winning weekly the Surrey Mirror. He has raced karts and cars since the age of 11, and occasionally continues to do so around his reporting commitments for Autosport.

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